Northants Anglo-Scandinavian Society 2020-2021: Manja Rønne

Northants Anglo-Scandinavian Society 2020-2021

by Manja Rønne, Secretary

Like so many other societies, clubs and organisations, Northants AngloScandinavian Society stopped meeting in person when Covid arrived on our shores in March 2020. That meant that we unfortunately had to cancel a visit to Brixworth Church, our planned annual dinner at a local restaurant, and our traditional summer walk whilst we followed developments.

Our AGM, which is normally held in late May, took place online in October 2020, initially by sending out the request for nominations, the Chairperson’s Report and the Balance Sheet. This was followed by a vote by email.

As we could not see light at the end of the tunnel back then, we did not ask members to renew their memberships, but we did schedule a couple of group chats on Zoom in October and November. However, despite many members expressing an interest in trying this out, disappointingly few took part, but for those who did, it was an enjoyable experience. 2021 arrived and, with Covid still around, our AGM once again took place online. This year the committee put it to members that since there had been no Society activity during the past year, the 2020-2021 committee offered to carry on for another year to get us going again, and members were happy to accept this.

Our first 2021 get-together in person took place in August when we met in sunny weather for a walk around a local village with one of our members expertly guiding us, and we finished with tea, coffee and cakes in her and her husband’s lovely garden.

In September and October our meetings started gently again with ‘A hyggelig afternoon’ to ease ourselves into ‘normality’ as we felt that after such a long gap it would be nice if our first meetings were purely social get-togethers to give everyone a chance to catch up with each other’s news.

Since our meetings in early 2020 we have now also changed from having evening meetings to meeting in the afternoon as many members prefer not to drive in the dark.

The November entry on our programme was a guided tour of the wellknown Jeyes in Earls Barton, Northants, including a visit to their little museum to learn about the long history of the company, followed by refreshments in their café.

We keep our fingers crossed that our last social gathering in 2021, our traditional Christmas lunch, will go ahead as planned. All members contribute to our buffet, which consists of traditional Scandinavian dishes. Our songbooks will be put to good use, and exercise will be had with a rendering of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’.

What 2022 will bring? Well, time will tell.